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June 1, 2023
He was murdered by an officer attached to Alausa Police Division in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
A generator technician shot dead by a Nigerian policeman in Oregun area of Lagos on Sunday night has been buried.
Bakare Idris was buried on Wednesday at Ifo area of Ogun State after an autopsy was carried out on him, SaharaReporters learnt.
He was murdered by an officer attached to Alausa Police Division in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
SaharaReporters on Tuesday reported that the family members of the deceased had demanded the release of his corpse and that justice be done.
The trigger-happy policeman has been identified as Kabiru Odejimi.
However, the police later released Idris’ remains to his family after SaharaReporters’ report about the delay by the police in releasing his corpse to the family for burial.
“His body was released after SaharaReporters’ story. He was buried at Ifo yesterday (Wednesday) amid tears by loved ones after carrying out an autopsy on him.
“The police commissioner went to see his family on Tuesday to pay a condolence visit. They said he sent everyone out including the Divisional Police Officer to have a private meeting with the slain boy’s parent.
“I was told that the police commissioner sent everyone out to plead with the parent of the deceased to talk to the youths to cease fire and not to carry out any form of violence. He also promised them that justice will be served,” a family source told SaharaReporters on Thursday night.
However, the source added that the family believed the police must be trying to sweep the matter under the carpet as the spokesperson for the state police command had yet to make any comment on the case.
Speaking with SaharaReporters earlier, the brother of the deceased said Idris was returning home from an outing when the incident occurred.
The family member explained that the police officer that shot Idris was not on duty at the time, noting that the cop always came around to harass and torment people in the area.
The brother narrated, “On Sunday night, my brother was coming from a party around Oregun. On his way to Fela Shrine, where we stay, he heard a gunshot as he was about to enter the house.
"He noted that it was Kabiru (policeman) at a bus stop pursuing people. When he got to some steps to enter his house, he heard another gunshot again. The second shot was a straight one.
"Idris never knew that the bullet had touched him. On getting to the front of the house, he fell down. When he stood up, he discovered that something was gushing out of his body, which was his own blood.
"He later discovered it was a bullet wound; we rushed him to a nearby clinic for first aid but the policeman came and threatened every one of us with a gun while he took Idris in his bus and went away.
"We went to the police station looking for our brother but Idris was not there. When the station DPO called him, he said he took Idris to one faraway emergency centre where Idris died.
"The DPO questioned him (to know) what he was doing at the scene since he was not on duty that night.
"The officer always comes around to harass and torment people a lot. He is worse than (the defunct) SARS. The police have refused to release the body of our brother to us. According to them, they want to carry out some tests on him including autopsy.”
"They are already prolonging the matter; we want to know what they want to do with our brother's body because we don't want a situation where he would be tagged as a cultist which will deny us from getting justice," he added.